Sandy: aftermath of the tempest

Clearly this storm has been a disaster for many who badly need assistance and prayers. Here at Cinch HQ in NYC we can only be grateful not to have lost power or suffered any other significant damage. Were it not for seeing it on the news, we wouldn’t even know it had been such a damaging storm. Would that everyone could say the same thing.

In terms of New York City at large, it seems the damage to the subway system is the biggest single issue hanging over the recovery effort. Shutting down the system was meant to avoid serious flooding by salt water, but it occurred anyway, and that’s a very big deal which will impact service for quite some time and cost plenty to fix.

Other than that, I’d just like to make a positive observation about some of the crucial people who don’t much get mentioned in situations like this. Yesterday, with the entire public transit system already offline, I was surprised how many businesses were still open in my New York City neighborhood, including some large supermarkets which, I’m pretty sure, employ people who do not live in the immediate vicinity. The difference between a few lousy days and a disaster might be whether you can get a loaf of bread, a quart of milk or a frozen pizza. By coming to work—both the mom and pop operators and the innumerable check-out girls and stock people who make the bigger stores run—they helped keep people going and also delivered a sense of security rather than panic. They won’t get medals, but that’s a very big deal. God bless ’em.